A Key's Makings
by iceyly
Summary: Drabble series - Riku and the Keyblade were always meant to share a special bond...


Aaaaand welcome to the insanity that once went under the working title RikuxKeyblade fic. I think this kind of got started in a chat conversation with Kayla when I mentioned that I always kind of think of Soul Eater/Way to the Dawn/Keyblades in general like zanpakutous and that I'd like to write a fic with Riku/Way to the Dawn that had that touch.

As you see, it kind of grew from there! |D;;;

In any case, I wasn't sure for a while if it would end up having eight or ten parts, but in the end I settled on eight because I just couldn't think of any truely significant development in two of them - though both of them would have probably been kinda cute. Maybe I'll write them some other time.

**Category:** Kingdom Hearts  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Riku, minor appearances of Terra, Xehanort's Heartless, Naminé and Xion and pretty much mentionings of lots of the remaining cast |D;  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Gen, Friendship  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG... I think?  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> Spoiler for Birth by Sleep, partial weirdly porny gen? idek, also kind of crossoverish with Bleach?  
><strong>Summary:<strong>Drabble series - Riku and the Keyblade were always meant to share a special bond...

**- A Key's Makings -**

He is five years old and standing on the beach, the same sand, the same sea, the same sky - nothing ever changing. Except for the stranger in front of him, the stranger from another land, another world.

How great it must be out there, he thinks, lands full of adventure and people and everything different from the slow rhythm that was the Islands, and somewhere out there something is waiting for him, a power, the power to protect all the things precious to him.

He has told this his father once and had been laughed at - _'Sure'_ ,his father had agreed, _'One day you can go and see all the stars if that is what you want.'_But he had said it in the way all adults talk, certain that it's nothing but dreams, easily coming and easily forgotten.

The stranger doesn't laugh however, but kneels down in front of him instead and calls for a large, strange looking key, whispering words and promises only ever meant for the two of them and he knows they are important the moment the first sentence passes the strangers lips.

_'In your hand, take this key...'_

His hands closes around the grip at the stranger's prompting and the touch feels like a spark racing up his fingertips and through his whole body, filling him with a kind of warmth that has nothing to do with the sun.

It's a little weird, the first spark of power that shifts _something_inside him, because he has always known that the stars whisper among themselves, but now it's like he has been deaf up to now and can hear them all of sudden and the key in his hand seems to be humming approval.

Riku is only all too ready to promise secrecy when asked.

He doesn't want the magic to go away after all.

* * *

><p>He drops out of the darkness and it's like awakening from a strange dream - one moment he had been on the Islands, opening the door like he has longed to for so, so long - feeling <em>power<em>race through him, chocking and real like he's never known before - and offering his hand to Sora, because he isn't afraid of the dark and neither should Sora and Kairi be. The darkness has always been whispering to him, ever since he had first seen the Keyhole in the Secret Place, so it's silly to be afraid, he had thought.

Admittedly, he isn't quite so sure now that he is in a different world, one that's destroyed and desolate, and him alone, with no Sora or Kairi in sight. The darkness' whispers are different here than they had been on the Islands; more aggressive, more bloodthirsty, and he has no idea what to make of that, not until he first sees the monsters - small, black things with yellow eyes gliding towards him; shadows that don't belong, that hunger for something he isn't willing to give.

When the first one crawls up to him, trying to claw at his pant leg, he jumps back and tries to strike it with the toy sword, one of the few things that made it with him to wherever here was, but it's useless and when he notices how many other of these things are coming to grab for him, for the very first time Riku tastes fear.

He feels them grab him, overwhelm him, whispering harsh and scratching and clawing; this really isn't how he imagined another world to be and struggling against their grip, he wants nothing more than to run, to hide, to curl against Sora and Kairi and feel home. And just when he thinks it's the end, when he is annoyed with himself for his inability to fight these things - dying here, at this point, when he has just made it _off_the Islands would be the worst, really - he hears another whisper, a voice that comes from within him rather than the outside.

_'Why are you running?'_ it seems to ask, because it's not truly words it whispers or at least not of any language Riku has ever heard before. _'Why are you running, when you can fight?'_

And fight he wants; he is not a coward and he is not afraid.

He finds himself calling out, with his heart, with his very being and then there is a flash of darkness and instead of a toy he is holding a sword shaped like a devil's wing; power - different to what he had felt on the Islands, but so very similar to something he can't quite seem to remember - racing through all that's him and it feels like nothing he has ever felt before.

One swing and the creatures are thrown off of him, shrieking in protest and pain and a moment later he goes after them, taking them down, strike by strike, the voice whispering _'Yes, yes, this is how it should be - we belong!'_and they do!

For the first time in his life, Riku feels truly complete.

_'We belong. Don't be afraid.'_

* * *

><p>He is standing on the edge, starring down at Sora and the companions he's chosen over Kairi and him and he smirks smugly, because it's his, finally, <em>finally<em>! Like it had been promised to him, he has at last claimed it for good.

The Keyblade.

Maleficent has been right it seemed, despite the way a part of him twists every time she touches him and whispers honey sweetened words into his ears. He doesn't trust her - no, no, never - but if she had been right about _this_... surely she was right about Kairi too, about Kingdom Hearts being able to return her heart.

Very well, in that case he now has the tool he needs, the key to open the final door, even if a small part of him wonders about the prize... Sora's friendship. He scoffs inwardly - Sora had been the one to betray him first, and honestly, he doesn't have what it takes anyway, he is afraid. Riku isn't.

He turns away from the pitiful sight of his former best friend before him, throwing the wooden toysword to his feet with a snide remark - he doesn't need it anymore, it was useless against the Heartless and about anything else lurking through the worlds.

Just worthless baggage and he has no idea why he has kept it around this long anyway.

He leaves then, back to the castle and Maleficent, back to _Kairi_and now he'll make good of his promise, he'll return her heart. He'll become the hero.

His hand clenches around the Keyblade, but for some reason it feels cold and lifeless beneath his fingers, so very unlike the Soul Eater; another weapon that isn't needed anymore.

Where Soul Eater has whispered to him, has always felt like a presence, like a part of himself; Kingdom Key is silent and feels almost like a void in his hand, apart from himself and for a moment he wonders about that... if it's really his, why doesn't it feel like that, like Soul Eater had?

It's probably nothing he thinks, useless thoughts and worries, because he has a job to do and no one - not Sora, not Maleficent - not anybody will stop him from doing it.

No matter what, he is going to use the Keyblade and open the door.

He is going to save Kairi.

* * *

><p>He is out of options and he hates it, hates Sora for pushing him this far and why, why, how could he have lost, how could his heart be <em>weaker<em>?

Within he feels anger and hate and despair coursing, pulsing intact with the blood in his veins and when that voice - the same as on the Islands - advises him to open himself, to become the darkness, he does it without a second thought.

It's a rush of power at first and it takes him a moment to realize that it isn't _his_ power but that of another and suddenly the voice laughing, loud and deeply, in his head. And then... suddenly, _suddenly_it all clears away, the hate, the anger, the fear and when he tries to move and finds that he can't... for the first time in a while Riku starts to question his actions.

It's too late now, the voice tells him, thoroughly amused with his attempts to regain control and he can only watch as this... thing inside him walks around, using his voice and his body, breathing darkness instead of air and Riku feels sick inside, especially when it creates that _key_.

That dark Keyblade that he _knows_ isn't really supposed to exist, and he can feel it pulse against the palm of the hand that he no longer can move by himself, all power, corrupted and _wrong_. This weapon is something dark, something evil and if he could he would throw it far, far away from himself and never touch it again.

Instead he has to watch how that thing inside him, uses it on Maleficent and tries to use it on Sora too and he wants nothing more than to scream as he watches Sora take up the blade himself and push it into his heart - even if he knows no other way to free a heart, surely there has to be on, surely...

'But there isn't' Ansem tells him, sounding pleased, perhaps because of Sora's choice, perhaps because of Riku's pain, perhaps because of both, 'There is only this.'

Then he moves onto Kairi and that duck and dog - Donald and Goofy - and Riku realizes, they won't be strong enough to protect her, not now that Sora is gone. It's all his fault, all his, how could he have let it happen, but he'll be damned if he lets Kairi get hurt now, after everything and he struggles and he fights, pushes all he is into one desperate grab to gain back control.

He won't be used for this.

* * *

><p>He is running through the familiar halls of Hollow Bastion - nothing but a memory in the most literal of senses... according to that Voice at least (also familiar and he is certain he knows who it is by now) - slaying Heartless left and right; they are no friends of his, not anymore. Nor is the darkness.<p>

He is done with all of them.

And yet he knows, despite what he is saying out aloud, the Voice is right, he hasn't totally rejected the Darkness or else he wouldn't be swinging the sword in his hand.

Soul Eater.

Once he had been proud, had thought the sword's name would be referring to the fate that awaits its enemies, them falling to its fierce bite, their souls torn apart by it.

He knows better now, because the only soul that is torn apart and eaten away by this sword... is his own.

Soul Eater thrives on the Darkness, pushes him to use it even though he has already sworn that he wouldn't anymore, even though he is rejecting it all - Ansem, the Darkness, Maleficent's teachings... he wants nothing to do with it anymore.

Once upon a time, Soul Eater has whispered to him whenever he had swung the blade; dark, soothing whispers in his heart, telling him to be strong, to discard his fear.

Soul Eater is silent now and while Riku thinks that just for the better that way, deep down he starts to feel despair because it's almost like a part of him is missing.

It's like the Voice said... he is all alone now.

* * *

><p>He is falling, fading, disappearing into the light.<p>

This is the end, he thinks, this is the end, but since it's Sora who dealt it, it's okay.

But then there is a voice, a girl's voice, Kairi's voice, sweet and soothing in his ear and oh, how much he is missing her. It's her voice that make him reconsider his path, make him think... using both the light and the darkness... was it possible? Could he use the darkness... without giving into it?

She tells him to follow the darkness, to let it guide him to his friends and for a moment he feels fear again; with all that he's done, how could he face them? But more than anything, the wish to see them again - Sora and Kairi, Waka, Tidus and Selphie too- is burning strong in his heart, stronger than his fear, stronger than the darkness.

No matter what, he will return, will see them all again. He'll set things right again.

It is then that he feels something in him shift again and Soul Eater that had been cold and unresponsive in his hands until that moment is suddenly whispering again, humming in approval, singing of the battles to come and he wonders how he could have ever thought of this blade as anything but his. How could he ever consider using another weapon but this one?

_'We belong. Don't be afraid.'_

"I'm not." he whispers back as he summons the darkness, his own darkness, and rips through the illusion before him, and for the first time since his arrival in this castle it is actually true.

The fear of the darkness that had started settling ever since he had left the Islands, is gone.

It would never return again.

* * *

><p>He is standing on the top of Memory's Skyscraper, waiting as the rain pours down on him, waiting for Roxas to come. And come he will, he knows that much deep within his heart. Indeed it doesn't take long for the Nobody - not <em>Sora's<em>Nobody, not until he had confirmed it himself - to appear, two Keyblades blazing as he cuts through the Neo Shadows below.

And then he's spotted Riku and is running up the building, sending one of the Keyblades flying - Oblivion, he knows, that what represents the things that were lost - and it's pure instinct for Riku to let himself fall, to close his hand around Oblivion's grip. It isn't his weapon, not like Soul Eater, but a touch is enough to awaken something else, to give life to memories that had almost disappeared.

Memories of Xion.

It's her voice he hears whisper to him as he fights, desperately trying to overpower Roxas; he can't let him pass, can't let him waste his life on a suicide mission - not when Sora's awakening depends on him becoming one with his heart again.

_'You have to stop him'_she pleads, even after his memories have fade almost to nothingness, even after he has lost Oblivion to its owner again, and he truly has no choice now, doesn't he?

But he has been prepared for this for days now, prepared to accept not just his own but all darkness - to become the Darkness himself.

There won't be any going back, not this time, but it's alright.

If it's for Sora, he will walk the path of darkness again.

* * *

><p>He is pacing in the hallway of the top floor in Twilight Town's abandoned mansion, where Naminé has hidden away ever since DiZ had left to pursue his plans of revenge, watching, hand gripped tightly around Soul Eater.<p>

They are coming, he knows; there've been too many Nobodies here recently and between making sure that Sora stays on the right track and helping DiZ with his strange scheme to rob the Organization's Kingdom Hearts off its power, he's been stretching too thin, hasn't caught them all before they could flee and report back.

It has been a matter of time anyway, he's known this, but it doesn't help the knot in his stomach because there is not much time left until all pieces would have to gather for the final showdown and he has to ensure that it comes to that. Sora, Kairi, Naminé... he has to protect them all.

And he _wants_to protect them, no matter what, wants it so badly, even in his current form.

Then he feels _him_approaching, the Organization's superior himself, and he runs back into the white room and cuts off all of Naminé's questions. There is no time now and if Axel's information was right than he wouldn't be able to defeat Xemnas by himself. But before he can get her to escape, he finds himself overwhelmed by dusks and sorceress and he grits his teeth when Xemnas appears and decides to name him Xehanort.

A moment later Soul Eater clashes with the Ethereal Blade, and it takes all he is to block the Superior's fast strikes. He's been backed into a corner, with Xemnas before him, Naminé behind him and Nobodies all around and all he can do is block and try his best to get a hit in every once in a while and the only thought on his mind is that he wants to protect Naminé.

That he wants to protect them all, the things that matter.

The _people_that matter.

He swings Soul Eater again, in one desperate attempt to create more space, thinking of nothing but off _them_and suddenly there's light - brilliant and warm and beautiful - inside himself and all around him and the whisper of an almost forgotten memory on his mind.

_'...so long as you champion the ones you love.'_

Then the light is gone and with it is Soul Eater. Instead there is another weapon in his hand - one that's just as familiar even if its song is different.

A Keyblade.

_His _Keyblade.

Driving the lesser Nobodies back is easier now and the light has disoriented Xemnas just enough for Naminé to slip through a Corridor unnoticed. He knows, he still can't beat Xemnas, even with this new weapon in his hand, but it's about buying time again, time enough for Naminé to find her other.

But now that Naminé is gone, Xemnas has no interest in the fight anymore and leaves him with the lesser Nobodies. There is no sense in getting stuck here and even more exhausted than he already is, so he opens a Corridor towards the World That Never Was, because he's more than certain now: the time for the end has almost come.

He is panting as he retreats, a certain sense of satisfaction racing through his veins and he still can't quite wrap his mind around the existence of the Keyblade in his hand.

It looks similar to Soul Eater, but it's different - its whispers are just as fierce but not as dark as that of his now former blade had been.

This is not a weapon of the dark anymore. It is one of the light.

_'What is your name'_he wonders, because he knows it isn't Soul Eater and a weapon like this should never be without one.

_'You know...'_ it whispers back. _'We belong.'_

And when he looks inside himself, into his heart, past of the shell of Ansem's darkness that is wrapped around it and he sees light and darkness threaded together, in balance with each other, the way he had known it should be since Castle Oblivion.

That is all clue he needs for the name.

_'Way to the Dawn.'_

The weapon that was once dark and became light.

Riku knows, there will never be a blade that fits him more than this one.

He can't help but smile at the realization, but than he sobers because this isn't quite over yet.

Not as long as Xemnas and the remaining Organization exists.

Not as long as there is still this shadow blanketing his heart.

It's time to end, it all he thinks as he walks the rest of the way towards the World That Never Was and in his hand Way to the Dawn hums not just approval but agreement.

Whatever the future may bring, he- _they_will face it.

After all, they belong.

_- FIN -_


End file.
